RusVelo riders Ilnur Zakarin and Artem Ovechkin made the top 10 in the final stage of 2.HC Vuelta a Burgos. Zakarin, ITT national champion back in 2013, set the 7th best time, Ovechkin, bronze medalist of the same event in 2014, finished 9th. The winner, Lithuanian Alexejs Saramotins (IAM Cycling), averaging impressive 50.676 km/h, was just 7 and 8 seconds faster, respectively, than his Russian counterparts. In the final general standings, Ilnur Zakarin went up to 12th, his RusVelo teammate Sergey Lagutin was 17th.

RusVelo DS Sergey Honchar said:
“Ilnur and Artem demonstrated excellent turn of speed, true to their specialists’ status in this discipline. The time gaps were really small, every minor error could cost a rider a couple of positions. In the morning inspection the course was not marked yet; in the race Zakarin made a notable mistake in the last turn, if it weren’t for these three to four seconds, he could make it to the podium. Well, after all, the results are good as they are.

RusVelo riders have just a few races of such a high category under their belts. Physically they are already at this level, and they grow more and more confident on a daily basis. The local journalists were unanimous in their appraisal of RusVelo as an aggressive team riding at the front, making the breakaways and keeping up with leaders. Now the most important thing is to accumulate experience of .HC races, the guys have entered a phase of their development when top level practice matters more than anything else”.